when prevacid quits working, I have been taking it for over 13 years, and now I'm having heartburn again. I take 30mg in the morning and 30mg at night, I understand that is the limit.

ive noticed if i forget to take a dose i get heartburn real bad. dont know what i am doing wrong. i thought this was going to be a temporary situation. does your stomach swell too? mine does. i am not fat but my stomach protrudes large on some days.

I just picked up a prescription for Prevacid today. My very first time to start using it. It's so expensive! 60 bucks for 30 pills. Yowsa!!

So please tell me....does it work at all? The Tums and Zantac and stuff just doesn't work. I am getting desparate. My main symptoms are MUCUS galore!! So much that I struggle to breath freely...It makes me panic. I burp alot and get hiccups more often than most. I only sometimes have burning in the sternum area. My stomach feels fine most all the time. So why all the mucus in my throat?? I don't cough it up or gag or anything. I just keep swallowing it all day long. It gets thick after I talk alot of eat something. PLEASE PLEASE help. I am truly desparate to feel better. I work that I will die from the mucus stopping my breathing.

Prevacid is my PPI of choice. I like the Solutab form the best. I take it 1/2 hour before breakfast and dinner.

I've been on Prevacid for over 4 years now. It was the first PPI to get my symptoms under control. It kept them under control for a very long time.

Eventually, it stopped working as it should for me. I've been on everything out on the market since then and none of them worked either. I ended up having surgery, but I still take the Prevacid twice per day as a back-up since it was the most effective PPI for me. My reflux was tested as extremely severe though so my experiences aren't typical as most.

My GI doc recommends trying other PPI's when one stops working. He had me try each one for a month at a time to see how they would work. Most people find one of the group that works well for them.

Hoboangel, my doc had me supplement my twice per day PPI's with Gaviscon. Others on this board supplement with Zantac. Just something to consider.

FYI. Prevacid has been approved for release over the counter. It should be out sometime later in the year. Hopefully it will be cheaper there.

Thanks Mountain Reader! You have really encouraged me tonight. Tomorrow morning I will start the Prevacid for the first time ever for me. I pray it works. I am pretty desparate right now. I have been quite naive about realizing just how bad reflux can get. It has really opened my eyes this past week about how vicious it can be. I am watching everything that goes into my mouth. I am exercising and trying to reduce all the stressors in my life. This is a wake up call. I can't eat junky like I have done for years. I may have this the rest of my life. I want to avoid surgery and I want to get this under control. I can't live like this. I can't imagine what you all have been going through for so long.

Does the Prevacid take a few days to start kicking in? Just curious.
Thanks so much! I hope you are doing ok!

TEdds83,
You may feel some relief fairly quickly. It usually took about a week for me to really tell if it was going to work or not.

My GI doc recommends giving PPI's a month before making judgement on them.

One caution about exercising. Be careful with some of the exercises that squeeze your stomach a lot. If you are having a lot of acid problems, squeezing the stomach may make the reflux worse.

You are doing many things right. Have you raised the head of your bed? If not, try propping it up about 6 inches for a while. Let gravity help you. Also, sleeping on your left side may help as well. If you look at a picture of your stomach and esophagus, you can see why. Again, gravity helping you.

By the way, I'm 1000's of times better today than I was a year ago. My symptoms were a bit more rare in that my primary symptom was a chronic cough and lung irritation to the point that I was having major breathing problems. It was when the breathing got so bad because of almost constant refluxing that I decided surgery was my best option. It has worked well so far. Again, I'm not "normal" with the severity of my symptoms. I will say that the meds and lifestyle changes worked for about 7 years for me. I do plan on being on PPI's for life though. If it helps me breathe though it is worth it.

I took Prevacid for a time and was on two tablets a day only to find out that all it did was numb a certain area of my system for a short time. Went on the Internet and found Digestinol and now I hardly ever take a pill. The Digestinol may see expensive at first, but it works and you eventually get off of it. It is nothing but very STRONG aloe vera. * link to commercial website removed by hb-mod, moderator *

I just picked up a prescription for Prevacid today. My very first time to start using it. It's so expensive! 60 bucks for 30 pills. Yowsa!!

So please tell me....does it work at all? The Tums and Zantac and stuff just doesn't work. I am getting desparate. ...

Thanks for any response!

$60 a month can get quite expensive. If you find yourself needing long term care you could consider Prilosec OTC (or generic Omeprazole) instead, that would cost you less then $19 a month. Prilosec is now over the counter since it is out of patent.